“We can now screen hair for drugs that may be used in sexual assaults,”
said Martz. “Those drugs are GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric), excess alcohol,
ecstasy and Rohypnol (flunitrazipam),” said Martz.

Drug-facilitated sexual assaults, in which a victim might not even remember
what happened, are often hard to prove in court.

Urine testing is inadequate in most cases, said Martz, because many so-
called date-rape drugs, like GHB, disappear from the blood and urine within 12
hours of ingestion.

But urine and blood tests are no longer the only option for victims who
believe they have been drugged and assaulted, but have no memory or obvious
physical proof.

Victims are often reluctant to come forward, because of time constraints in
urine testing.

“The Vancouver police department have said often times it’s too late to
look for bodily fluids,” said Martz, who often testifies as an expert witness
in forensic toxicology at trials around the world.

“Hair is like a diary,” explained Martz, who lobbied to have new equipment
brought into the Provincial Toxicology Centre to perform hair analysis. “It
preserves information over time.”

Hair grows at a fairly consistent rate, said Martz, about a centimetre a
month.

Hair growth is fed by the bloodstream, so substances in the bloodstream at
the time of growth become part of the hair as it is formed in the root, before
being pushed out through the scalp.

Metabolite traces remain in the hair, leaving accurate time markers.

The methodology, explained Martz, is to take a sample of a victim’s hair at
the time of an alleged drug-facilitated sexual assault. Three weeks later,
another sample is taken close to the root.

If a victim were disabled with GHB or ecstasy, for example, and was not a
regular user, the drug’s metabolites will be evident.

“We do segmental analysis,” said Martz. “A one-time event puts tiny
amounts of a molecule in a very small section of hair, so normally the
methodology is very powerful to distinguish between chronic, frequent or
infrequent (ingestion).”

Where nothing else can be taken as evidence, hair analysis has become part
of the investigative landscape in Europe and the U.S., said Martz, and is
accepted for use in many court cases.

“If it is not in the first strand there can be no claim this person has
been in regular use (of the substance); if it is positive at the bottom then
there is evidence this has occurred in the period this crime has been committed.
”

Martz recently testified at the murder trial of a child in Germany, where
hair analysis factored into the prosecution. “We found various drugs in the
hair of the child.”

When Martz came to B.C. to run the Provincial Toxicology Centre in 2007, he
made it his mandate to get the equipment necessary for the highly sensitive
testing.

He and his team are working with the Vancouver Police Department to get the
information out there that the technology is available.

“Now they know there is an option, and they are pre-selecting cases they
will give us,” said Martz.

He is hoping to work with hospitals and doctors to let them know this
testing is now available.

“We are also in the process of establishing the chain of custody,
documentation and report format,” said Martz. All are important for
evidentiary reasons if a case goes to court.